A good day in Iraq

Oh, how hard it is to be against the War on Election Day in Iraq.

Even if the polls numbers are wrong and it wasn't a 72% turnout- if it was a 50% or less, the fact that Iraqis risked their lives to go out and vote is a wonderful display of bravery and freedom.

I am happy for them.

But I still wonder if the ends justified the means. I was always an advocate of Preemptive Democracy as way to minimize or hopefully avoid casualties in an Iraq conflict...


Are the neocons right?


What if Bush has been right about Iraq all along?
February 1, 2005
BY MARK BROWN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Random thoughts: Bush legacy... poor planning... gambling with other people's lives.... little Osamas... Democracy at the point of a gun- is that freedom? How many Iraqi civilian casualties matter to you? How many American lives? All? Some? None?

Did the people oppressed by Saddam deserve to be killed for their freedom by our military?

It's not like we came in and joined someone's rebellion. We invaded an organized Stalinist state, but it doesn't seem that we had a clear plan for the occupation. The contractors were very organized and ready to go. The Humvees still aren't all armored. The Defense Secretary is glib, flip, and cock-sure. Iraqi's power and water is still intermittent... $9 billion dollars are missing...

Baghdad Burning

Operation Truth


What does the Project for the New American Century have to say? Nothing so far, it seems... Shouldn't they be bloviating wildly now?

My great hope is that Bush knows the War wasn't the wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am his advisers told him it would be- it's ending up somewhat more like the VietNam War he avoided as a wealthy young man. So my hope is that Bush the masterful politician is looking to "fix" this nagging war and his legacy by beginning to pull out our troops. Even a "cosmetic" pull out- a few thousand at first- would be wonderful. I hope that his ego will motivate him to begin the pull out...


Even if, as a liberal, I am left in the uncomfortable position of wanting our troops to not leave the place in sheer chaos... I want NATO or the Arab League or somebody in there to help...

I don't care about being right about this... I want to be wrong, actually...

But I'm afraid this will embolden them. The neocons. The Bushes. The right wing.


He might be a lame duck on social security- but he sure is a wartimepresident